Odessa, Ukraine

I woke up after 09:00, showered, dressed, grabbed my camera, and walked out of the hostel at 11:00. I then walked northwest to the Odessa Art Museum. Just north of the hostel I stayed at is a building with two statues of Atlas (combined) holding up the corner of the structure, as well as a very nice looking manor that is guarded by several soldiers in blue camouflage with body armor and automatic weapons (it looked like a level from the game ‘Hitman’). I soon reached the museum, entered inside, paid the entrance fee, stowed my camera away (no photographs allowed), and then enjoyed the wonderful art collection which had many Ukrainian paintings from the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. A number of the paintings had some really sad themes and one piece – that caught my attention – depicted a man defiantly turned away from his wife or girlfriend, smoking a cigarette, as she leaned against a wooden fence beam and cried; the painting was titled something like “I’ve grown tired of you” – I forget the actual name, but it successfully captured an event that happens far too often in this world. Also, in one room full of Christian paintings, I saw several paintings of the “Trinity of the Old Testament,” which depicted the appearance of the three angels to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre – a subject I don’t recall seeing before. After touring the art museum, I walked to the Odessa Regional History Museum. The museum had three exhibits: the history of Odessa, historical military weapons, and Odessa’s role in World War II – this last exhibit had a display of local heroes who had been killed in Russia’s recent war of aggression. After visiting the museum, I walked to the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, which was closed (so no buying tickets today). Next, I walked to the Maritime Museum, which was closed and looked like it was being renovated. Then, I walked to the Archaeological Museum, which was also closed (not sure why, but the next two days I walked past it and it still had a red “Closed” sign on its door). I then walked to the City Hall (thinking that it might be a museum – there aren’t many signs in English here), but upon entering inside, a security guard informed me of the true nature of the building. Then, being hungry, I walked to a nearby restaurant that believes in false advertising – it claimed to be a barbecue restaurant, but, in actuality, it only served grilled meat (there is a difference people!). Inside the restaurant, I had to have the waiter use the precious few words he knew in English to translate the menu (which was entirely in Ukrainian) to me; in the end, I had an incredibly expensive meal (by Ukrainian standards – next time, I won’t eat at any restaurants near City Hall where rich douchebags spend their money) that consisted of chicken tenders served with ketchup, grilled vegetables, potato wedges, a beef steak, and Hoegaarden beer (served with lemon slices instead of orange slices). After eating, I walked along Primorsky Boulevard and to the famous Potemkin Stairs (made famous by the 1925 AD film, ‘Battleship Potemkin’, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, which portrayed a fictional massacre on the steps; the stairs were originally known as the Primorsky Stairs before the Soviet-propaganda film was released); the stairs were built in 1841 AD to allow for easy access to the harbor below. I walked up and down the steps (arguably Odessa’s most famous site) and then walked back in to Odessa’s city center. I walked south to the Odessa Philharmonic Theater (a beautiful building) and then west to the City Garden and the Transfiguration Cathedral (which had closed at 17:00 – I reached it after 17:40). I then wandered around some more as the daylight grew dim. Finally, I walked back to the hostel, but made sure to stop at a nearby market before returning. At the market, I bought some moloko, water, chocolate, and two bottles of wine. Once back at the hostel, I drank the milk, went through the photos I took today on my laptop, and talked to a guest from the Crimea, a guest from the United Kingdom, and two Ukrainian women staying at the hostel. After consuming the milk, I moved on to the wine and had a bottle of Crimean white wine made from Rkatsiteli grapes (or so I was told by the Ukrainian woman who speaks English pretty well – the label on the bottle was almost entirely in Ukrainian) that tasted like lemons and flowers. While enjoying my wine, I was busy downloading some recent albums off of Amazon that I liked and I was listening to the music, jamming out in the kitchen, as I received the songs over the internet. Then, in drunken stupidity, I decided to open the other bottle of wine and consume it; so I had a “Myckat” (Ukrainian for “Muscat”) wine that was produced in the Odessa Oblast and that tasted of nectar, flowers, and citrus fruit. While enjoying this second bottle, the resident cat laid down on my lap and I spent most of the time petting her; she was a very friendly cat, to cozy up to complete strangers like that. After finishing that bottle of wine, I considered venturing out to buy more, but quickly disbanded that idea in favor of sleep. So, I put my stuff away in the locker provided to me and I crashed out on my bed.